Endoscopy with a capsule endoscope has recently been put into practical use. The capsule endoscope has its components, including an imaging device and a light source, integrated in a micro capsule. A patient first swallows the capsule endoscope so that the imaging device captures images from internal body sites, i.e. internal surfaces of patient's tracts, while the light source is illuminating those sites. Image data captured by the imaging device is transmitted as a radio signal to a receiver that is attached to the patient. The image data is sequentially recorded on a storage medium like a flash memory, which is provided in the receiver.
In parallel to the imaging of the body sites by the capsule endoscope, the position of the capsule endoscope inside the patient is detected. For example, JPA 2005-192880 and JPA 2007-236700 suggest sending out a radio wave from the capsule endoscope and detecting the strength of the radio wave received on an antenna, which may be mounted on a shielding shirt or the like that the patient wears. Then data on the position of the capsule endoscope is derived from the strength of the received electric wave, and is recorded in association with the image data of the inspected sites on the storage medium.
To complete the endoscopy with the capsule endoscope, the receiver is connected to an information managing apparatus like a workstation via an USB cable or the like, so that the whole image data stored in the receiver is taken into the information managing apparatus. On the basis of the image data taken into the information managing apparatus, a doctor has the captured images displayed on a monitor to interpret them. When the doctor finds any suspected part, i.e. such a part that looks like a lesion, in some images, the doctor takes images from the suspected part with a flexible endoscope like a balloon endoscope, to make a complete examination.
If the suspected part is found in those images taken from inside a small intestine, a probing tip of the balloon endoscope is inserted into the small intestine to take images of an aimed point by an imaging device that is built in the probing tip. The aimed point is where the suspected part may exit, and its position is located in advance on the basis of the position data of the capsule endoscope that is recorded in association with the image data of the suspected part. Image signals from the imaging device are sent to a processor that is connected to the balloon endoscope. Then the processor processes the image signals to display an endoscopic image on a monitor, so that the doctor interprets the displayed image for diagnosis.
To insert the probing tip of the balloon endoscope into the small intestine to reach the aimed point, the small intestines are drawn in with a balloon that is provided on the probing tip. As a result, the doctor tends to lose track of the aimed point because the aimed point in the drawn small intestines does not coincide with one indicated by the position data that was detected by the capsule endoscope in the normal condition of the small intestines. So it takes a pretty long time to search for the aimed point, which elongates the total time taken for the endoscopy and thus increases the load on the patient.